Jane Austen: An Unsung Feminist?

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A watercolour and pencil sketch of Jane Austen, believed to be drawn from life by her sister Cassandra (c. 1810).

Jane Austen is often considered as one of the most important female writers of the19th century. For decades since their initial publications, her works have been widely read, praised, analyzed, and adapted in different ways. However, it must be noted that Austen’s works do not merely portray romantic stories; rather, they serve as keen explorations of how the early 19^th century society perceived relationships and marriages against the norms concerning wealth, honor, and social standing. More important to note is that these works are always sympathetic to the position of women, especially since their future often depends on marriage and the quality thereof. Thus, in a way, it can be said that her works are suggestive of feminism.

To understand how her works appear to be feminist in nature, one must first acquaint oneself with her works. Many of Austen’s works have gathered their respective fame and acclaim. Three of these are her Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion. Sense and Sensibility tells the story of the Dashwood sisters. With little income, the Dahswood sisters are faced with the immediate need for husbands. In the same manner, Pride and Prejudice’s Bennet sisters are in search for husbands. And lastly, Persuasion also revolves around the Elliot sister’s search for marital bliss.

Basing on these three plots, it can be said that marriage is a central theme in the lives of women in Austen’s time. Each of the important women characters are faced with the need to marry which are in turn complicated by social norms and expectations. Indeed, it is no surprise that marriage is the center of conflict for the characters since it is of primary importance for women to find good matches for the sake of their future. As seen in the novels, women’s later lives significantly depend on men. This may be attributed to the fact that men in those times had more control on things such as property and industry. An excellent example to this is the system of inheritance employed by society. In Sense and Sensibility, the death of Henry Dashwood leaves all of his property to his son by his first marriage, leaving the Dashwood sisters without a home. Similarly, the property of the Bennet family is “entailed” which means that the property shall pass to a male relative and thus if the Bennet sisters fail to marry, they shall inherit none at the death of their father. Moreover, the quality of marriage is also a concern, with women from the upper-classes needing men of the same standing as seen in Persuasion and women of lower-classes finding it against social expectation to marry men from nobility as in the case of the Bennet sisters.

Taking into account the plight of women in the face of the uncertainty and complications of marriage, one can say that Austen’s novels are sympathetic to women and thereby assume a feminist position. It might not be Austen’s intention to be a feminist but her works certainly act as advocates of women. This is due to the fact that by writing the conditions that face women in their search for marriage, their dependence on men for their futures are given emphasis. Austen’s readers, which were numerous in her time, are acquainted with the real situation of women through the novels’ keen illustration of their lives in the contemporary setting.

In the end, it is beyond a doubt that Austen’s novels have become accurate and poignant portraits of the lives of women in her own time. Having died a spinster herself, Austen may have faced the same difficulties that her character faced in their lives. In creating her sensible characters, she highlights the real situations that make marriage complicated and in doing so acts as an advocate that reveals through her writing a perspective that is at once endearing as it is sympathetic to women in general.